Beatles News
If you were looking for a Beatle who respected the British royal family and could be counted on to say the right thing at the right time, John Lennon wasn’t your guy. Over the years, John made it clear he wasn’t gunning for a knighthood, starting with the return of his MBE to Queen Elizabeth in 1969.
But even in the pre-Beatlemania days, John wanted to get a few shots in when the Fab Four played the Royal Variety Show of 1963. “I cracked a joke on stage,” he said in Anthology. “I was fantastically nervous, but I wanted to say something to rebel a bit, and that was the best I could do.”
Before diving into “Twist and Shout,” John calmly approached the microphone and requested some help from the audience. “Would the people in the cheapest seats clap your hands,” he said. “And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewelry.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
A London municipal crew has repainted the Abbey Road crossing made famous by the cover of The Beatles‘ 1969 album of the same name, while the city is under lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus.
The crew quietly painted the normally swamped tourist hotspot zebra crossing on Tuesday (March 24), after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a shutdown of non-essential businesses on Friday (March 20).
The pedestrian crossing was designated a site of national importance by the British government in 2010. This means it can only be altered with the approval of the local authorities which would make a decision based on the site’s historic significance, function and condition, according to Reuters.
Source: Josh Martin/nme.com
A riverside apartment previously owned by Sir Paul McCartney and ex-wife Heather Mills is for sale.
According to Paul McCartney: The Biography, by Philip Norman, the former Beatle gifted cash to Mills to buy the two-bedroom apartment in the exclusive Thames Reach development so she could use it as an office.
Source: Amira Hashish/homesandproperty.co.uk
Tonight we get words of wisdom from two of my favorite Britons ever -- Winston Churchill and George Harrison.
(Others in contention for favorite, in no particular order: John Cleese, Elvis Costello, Emma Thompson, William Shakespeare, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sean Connery, Brian May’s hair and Laurel or Hardy -- whichever one was British.)
Over Churchill's loud objections, we'll give Harrison top billing, if only because I don't think The Bulldog could sing.
And so, Churchill provides the opening act:
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Heck, we're not even at the end of the beginning of this COVID-19 pandemic. Things are probably going to get pretty bad, including right here in Putnam County.
But I know there will be an end. What will life be like on the other side? I don't know. None of us do.
Source: bannergraphic.com
Back in 1963, The Beatles released their Parlophone single I Want to Hold Your Hand. The track also came with This Boy on the B-side, but it turns out there was some controversy behind-the-scenes on this one. In fact, John Lennon’s vocals on the song had replaced George Harrison’s guitar solo.
According to Showbiz CheatSheet, The Beatles’ producer George Martin was very much in control of the band’s recording sessions.
Unlike their later work, they whizzed through their early music in a matter of hours.
The Fab Four had 15 full run-throughs of This Boy, but the middle eight featured Harrison’s guitar solo.
Geoff Emerick, who was working a the studio’s second engineer that day, has revealed in Here, There Everywhere what the producer made of it.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
The writers of The Simpsons say that Paul McCartney “always checks” that Lisa is still a vegetarian, after it became a key condition of his guest appearance on the show.
The Beatles icon appeared alongside his late wife Linda in 1995’s Lisa The Vegetarian, an episode in which Lisa vows to stop eating meat after meeting the McCartneys.
In a new interview with the Radio Times, show consultant David Mirkin – who is also a vegetarian – said he was “happy to comply” with McCartney’s request.
But he admitted that every time he bumps into McCartney, “he always checks. And he’s always surrounded by nine or ten lawyers so it’s quite frightening.”
Source: Nick Reilly/nme.com
The musician, who was well-known for performing with The Beatles fell ill with Covid-19 on Saturday after performing a gig, his close friend Arthur Kerevan has confirmed.
But sadly, the father-of-three passed away from the virus on Tuesday.
His family paid a tribute to the musician, who described him as ‘our world’.
‘As a family we are devastated at the sudden loss of our husband, father-in-law, grandad, brother and friend who touched so many lives through music,’ they said in a statement.
‘What makes his loss even more heartbreaking is the fact that it could have been so easily avoided had it not been for coronavirus.’
Source: Abbie Bray/metro.co.uk
Lots of music appears to be emerging from the world’s windows and balconies, in some cases recalling The Beatles’ famous rooftop concert from 1969. Now some enterprising fan out there might be able to replicate the band’s very first concert—from almost a decade earlier—on the actual stage where they played.
On April 10, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the band’s breakup, California-based Julien’s Auctions will offer a slew of Beatles memorabilia (with live online bidding available), from the handwritten lyrics for “Hey Jude” to corduroy trousers worn by John Lennon himself. While it may not look so illustrious, this set of wooden planks pulled straight out of the floor are in fact witnesses to history, and a marquee item that could fetch as much as $20,000.
Source: by Matthew Taub /atlasobscura.com
The Beatles are one of the greatest rock bands ever. The Beach Boys are one of the greatest rock bands ever. It only makes sense that Sir Paul McCartney would want to collaborate with one of the Beach Boys.
When Paul worked with the Beach Boys, things went down an unexpected path. Paul is a reknown multi-instrumentalist. The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson asked him to play an uncommon instrument: celery.
The Beach Boys evolved from a doo-wop/pop band to one of the most experimental acts in the history of mainstream music. Some of their experiments included using non-instruments as instruments. Their album Pet Sounds famously features the sounds of dogs barking at some point.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Tom Jones opened up on his relationship with John Lennon in a past interview with Channel Bee. In a newly uncovered video, the Delilah hitmaker recalled how he and nearly got into a fight with The Beatles star the first time they ever crossed paths. He explained how they had first met when both acts were appearing on Thank Your Lucky Stars back in the mid-1960s.
“I had It’s Not Unusual out, my first hit record, in 1965,” Jones said. “The Beatles were on the show.
“I went to watch them rehearse in the afternoon. I’m sitting there where the audience would be later on with my manager Gordon Mills.
“I’m waiting for The Beatles to come on; I want to watch them rehearse,” he remembered.
Source: Minnie Wright/express.co.uk
